When we practice mindfulness we see deeply into the truth that all things change–endings and beginnings are happening all of the time. While the current Tasting Mindfulness blog is ending on this website, a new and revised monthly Tasting Mindfulness newsletter is beginning on my new website. In order to continue to receive this newsletter, please enter your name on my mailing list.

When you go to my website, you will also see that I have published my new book, The Mindfulness-Based Eating Solution. It is so exciting to be able to spread the refreshing message of mindful eating to even more people. Along with the book, there are mindfulness recordings that you can use to support your practice of mindfully engaging with food and your life.

The Eat for Life program will be temporarily suspended, but if you join my newsletter list you will be the first to know when it’s back up and running again.

I do hope you decide to join me in my new beginnings and adventures. It has been a pleasure to be with you all of these years.

The new Federal Drug Administration food labeling rules are a big win for the consumer. According to their May 20, 2016, announcement, the new Nutrition Facts label for packaged foods will “reflect new scientific information, including the link between diet and chronic diseases such as obesity and heart disease.” In essence, you will be able to make better informed decisions about what you eat in order to be and stay healthy.

The highlight of the new rules is that big business, especially The Sugar Association, lost their fight to keep the “added sugar” content off of the label. Instead, all labels will now specify what percentage of the total sugar content has been added by the manufacturer. A lot of food has naturally occurring sugar, so this new label will help the consumer see how much extra they would be getting. We can thank the American Heart Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Institute of Medicine and the World Health Organization, Michelle Obama, and others for their recommendation to decrease the intake of added sugar. This recommendation is based on lots of research that indicates added sugars raise the risks for obesity and other chronic conditions.

Mindful eating helps you to be aware of those extra sugars by attending to your taste buds. Train yourself to pay careful attention when you eat and you will be more aware of extra sugar and other chemicals. Over time you will notice that your taste buds are great detectives. For me, I will take the food with no added sugar on top. Thanks!

Other highlights of the new rules include updating the serving sizes so that they more accurately reflect how people eat, putting servings in larger, bolder type, listing the calories in larger type, updating the daily values that you need based on newer scientific evidence, eliminating the calories from fat but leaving in the type of fat that is in the product, adding nutrients such as Vitamin D and potassium to the label along with calcium and iron but letting Vitamins A and C be included on a voluntary basis.

Things move slow on these types of changes, but I am elated that we are moving in a direction that helps instead of tricks people. Large manufacturers will need to use the new label by July 26, 2018, so it will still be a while before you see these labels come into effect. Click on this link to see get more information on the FDA website. And see the labels below for a comparison of the old (on the left) and the new (on the right).

It is pretty shocking that most of us miss about half of our lives. That’s right. If you are 42 years old, for instance, chances are you have missed about 21 years of your life already. Your body has been alive but your mind has been disconnected. Your mind has been thinking about the past (e.g., what you did wrong, what he did wrong, things you are sorry for, things you are mad about) or your mind has been thinking about the future (worrying about what might happen, planning all of the things that you may or may not do, making your grocery list). What’s more, when you aren’t living in the present you are more likely to be anxious and depressed (Killingworth & Gilbert, 2010).

If that wasn’t enough, when you aren’t engaged in the present you tend to miss a lot of things. You might not even notice what are you putting into your mouth, how full are you getting, how much money are you spending, where you are going, or what are you saying that you might have to apologize for later. One of the most profound statements I’ve ever heard was from a woman in my mindful eating class who came in during week two and said “I don’t like anything I eat, I just hadn’t noticed before.

Our ability to be fully present in this moment without judgment and with kindness and compassion is a prerequisite for behaving in ways that will bring us peace and happiness and help us change behaviors that we want to change. Mindfulness helps us understand ourselves, others, and the world around us so that we aren’t caught up in habitual, mindless behaviors.

As you practice mindfulness over time, there is an increasing sensitivity to the world around. You see your part in the whole of everyone else who is trying to be happy and content. You sense the impact you have on the world around you in more and more subtle ways. This consciousness can be a little disturbing at times because there is a weight of responsibility that can feel a little heavy. But don’t fall into the trap of feeling like you need to save the world, become overwhelmed and then do nothing.

Instead, here are some somewhat random tips for becoming a more mindful, conscious human being. This is definitely not an all-inclusive list. But, these are things I’m working on so I thought you might want to try them too. Use them for a week and see if you don’t feel a little more compassionate and connected with yourself and others.

Spend 10-20 minutes a day meditating. There are tons of meditation apps like Insight Timer that can help you get started. This will help you be present for the rest of the day.

Know what you’re putting into your mouth. Ask yourself the questions: What am I eating? Where did it come from? Why am I eating it? Is this food that my body wants and needs?

Drive slower. Not only will you feel more relaxed when you drive
slower, but you will get less impatient with others. In addition, think of the gas you’ll save. Notice your surroundings and enjoy the view.

Recycle. Bottles, cans, paper, and plastic can all be recycled and used again. But you can recycle almost anything, even your car! See this guide from the UK for more ideas.

Listen better. How much of the time do you truly listen to another person without thinking about what you’re going to say or asking questions? Just listen until you know the other person has finished talking.

Speak with words that are kind and true. Even in the difficult conversations, you can choose to be kind and say what is “true” from your experience without blaming and condemning another. Mindful communication is difficult. This is a good place to start.

Watch what you’re spending. It is so easy to get caught up in the consumer culture. The next time you are ready to pull out the credit card, stop and ask yourself if this is something you really want and need. You can even wait a couple of days to see if you still want the item.

Living consciously takes constant attention and mindfulness will help you make more conscious choices. Instead of living on automatic, try paying attention with kindness and compassion to the daily choices you make in what you do, say, and hear. It’s not easy to break out of routines and habits, but it is worth the effort.

How many of you eat even when you’re not physically hungry? My guess is that would be all of you. And, from time to time this is not a problem. Once in a while it is nice to have a special treat just because something tastes good. I particularly savor my first trip to the ice cream parlor in the spring when the weather starts getting warm. However, if you commonly eat to reward and entertain yourself and to ease emotional distress there is a chance you lose control over eating and think about food a lot.

The Eat for Life class that I teach at the University of Missouri is a mindfulness-based intuitive eating program that helps people discover why they eat when they’re not hungry and how to be more in control of what, when, and how they eat. In addition, the program shows how to turn exercise into fun and eating into a healthy joy. The research I conducted indicates that after the program people are more mindful, they eat based on physical instead of emotional cues, they appreciate their bodies more, and they binge less often.

My research indicates that mindfulness training was the key to success in all of the other improvements that people experienced. To support that finding, recent research by Mason and colleagues published in the journal Appetite demonstrated that adding mindfulness training to a diet and exercise intervention called Supporting Health by Integrating Nutrition and Exercise (SHINE)significantly improved weight loss. This randomized controlled trial adds to the support of mindfulness training as an important part of any weight management or weight loss program.

Summer classes for the Eat for Life program are now registering. This is great opportunity to learn to eat and live in a way that supports your physical and emotional well-being. There is an in person class in Columbia, Missouri, and an online class that you can take from anywhere in the world. I hope you can join me.

We often regard stress as something to be avoided. Ultimately though, stress is inevitable…from the moment our alarm clock rings, we experience a “fight or flight” response and continue to experience stressors for the remainder of our day.

Although people generally regard stress as negative, stress is actually adaptive in that it helps us to strive for and achieve our goals. When an elite sprinter is in the starting blocks, stress elevates the blood pressure and heart rate, enabling the runner to reach top speed quickly. Upon realizing I have a deadline, I experience a stress response and am motivated to stop procrastinating and get to work.

Ultimately, the problem may not be that we experience stress, but that we don’t recover from it efficiently. Recovering quickly from stressful situations may help us to harness the power of stress. In addition, people who recover more quickly from stress are known to have better physical and emotional health outcomes.

This ability to recover quickly from stress is sometimes called resilience. People who are more resilient are more able to quickly return their body to a relaxed state. Researchers are finding that mindfulness practice is one way to bolster resilience. Studies at University of California, San Diego are showed that mindfulness training can people in high-stress positions like elite athletes and Marines to more quickly reduce their physiological stress response. Another study with “normal” people who were put into a stressful situation (periods of breathlessness) found that those with low resilience had less awareness of their body, but more brain activity indicative of distress. Researchers concluded that the key to coping more effectively with stress involves bodily awareness, which can be developed via mindfulness practice.

The body scan meditation is a way to increase resilience by tuning into the body in a curious, non-judgmental way. Being more engaged with your body will help you to notice when you’re holding on to stress and release it when it’s not helpful to you. Try the body scan once a day for a week and see if you notice any changes in the way you respond to stress.

I regularly teach meditation to people who have never meditated before and one of the common misconceptions is that meditation is the same as “relaxation.” While meditation may have a side benefit of helping you feel relaxed and peaceful, it is not the primary intention of meditation. The primary intention of meditation is to teach you how to be navigate your life (all of the ups and downs) without over reacting and getting stressed out. In other words, it teaches you how to alleviate your suffering.

And you don’t just have to take my word for it. In a recent study in the Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, mindfulness meditation was shown to be more effective than either “eyes-closed relaxation” or silence in increasing awareness, reducing depression, anxiety, blood pressure, and heart rate in a diverse sample of people. These health outcomes are extremely important for anyone experiencing the demands of school, work, major stress-related illnesses, and difficult living environments.

This study is particularly interesting because it was comprised of African American university students and urban residents. The use of diverse populations in research is extremely important in our ability to correctly understand the impact of interventions. Surprisingly enough, many researchers in the past have ignored gender, racial, and cultural differences with sometimes devastating consequences.

If you would like to try meditation, it can be helpful to join a group and have an experienced teacher lead you through the practice. Use the internet to search for programs near you by using the words “mindfulness meditation groups.” As an alternative, feel free to use the recordings on this website. I have meditation and yoga sessions that can be help you sail through the holiday season and on into the New Year.

I have been reading and practicing with some teachings on mindful speech recently and it seems to be an area of great difficulty for most people. I know it is for me and it is something that I am sure I will work on for the rest of my life.

What is mindful communication?

Mindful communication happens when you are truly present in this moment with curiosity, kindness, and compassion. You listen with an open, nonjudgmental heart to the other person. You speak skillfully, generally avoiding lying, harsh language, gossip, divisive speech. (Did I lose most of you here?) Before you speak, you ask yourself is it useful, true, beneficial, and timely.

Here are just a few things that make mindful communication difficult.

You hear what you expect to hear rather than what is actually being said

You have difficulty expressing your emotions

You lack good attention skills

You’re very busy

You jump to conclusions

You want to get your thoughts expressed instead of listening to the other person

You get caught up in gossip and divisive conversations (it happens all the time!)

You forget to be compassionate of the other person

You are so busy listening to your internal chatter you can’t hear the other person

You like to fix other people’s problems

I could go on and on…

How can you improve?

I think it is important to connect with why you would want to improve your communication. In my experience, mindful communication brings about harmony in relationships and harmony within myself. That’s all the reason I need. So, check in with yourself to see what your intention is before you start to speak. Are you wanting to bring harmony and compassion to the situation or do you have another intention? When we don’t connect with our intention we can more easily fall prey to unskillful speech.

At work, mindful communication can help you think on your feet, seek out information in a collaborative manner, help you resolve conflict in ways that helps all parties be heard, and encourage transparency about processes. All of these things will improve relationships and enhance productivity.

You can practice pausing before you speak. Take one deep full breath and consider what is about to come out of your mouth before you say anything. Notice what it feels like to not say something that you realize would be hurtful in some way.

You can set an intention to listen attentively to someone at work and at home without interrupting, asking questions, agreeing, or otherwise inserting any speech. Notice what happens inside you when you “just listen” and notice how the other person responds. You might be surprised at how many friends you’ll gain with this strategy.

Practicing mindful communication is quite challenging because there are so many ways we fall prey to our conditioned way of speech. As a start, try listening more and talking less. As Epictetus said, “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”

If you’ve had a job for any length of time, it is not lost on you that your supervisor can have a significant impact on your day. Your relationship to your supervisor can make you feel like being more or less productive and empowered. As a leader, it is important to know what brings out the best in your employees. As an employee, it feels great to work for someone who understands and practices effective leadership skills.

The role of mindfulness in the workplace has increasingly been recognized as an important quality associated with better task performance, lower emotional exhaustion, better social relationships, and enhanced well-being (Narayanan, Chaturvedi, Reb, and Srinivas, 2011; Glomb, Duffy, Bono, and Yang, 2011). Research has also examined how supervisors’ mindfulness impacts their employees’ well-being and performance (Matthias, Narayanan, and Chaturvedi, 2014).

How mindfulness can help leaders in their ability to strengthen the workplace was directly examined in a recent study of a variety of work settings (Matthias, Narayanan, & Chaturvedi, 2014). The study found that employees whose supervisors who were more mindful had less emotional exhaustion and better work-life balance. Further, mindfulness of the supervisor was positively related to overall employee performance and job satisfaction and negatively related to employee deviance.

Mindfulness, present-moment awareness with an observing, non-judging stance, can influence the workplace in the following ways:

Move people from an adversarial mindset to a more collaborative mindset (Riskin, 2002)

Understand others’ emotional states as well as better understand one’s own emotions (Arch & Craskse, 2006)

Be fully present in interactions with each other in order to demonstrate respect

To become the leader that truly inspires, cultivating the skill of mindfulness can increase awareness of yourself and others in order to increase your emotional intelligence and authentic leadership ability—two concepts known to be associated with great leadership.

For more information about mindful leadership, check out Janice Marturano’s book “Finding the Space to Lead” and her website which has lots of mindfulness meditations you can use throughout the workday. Books on the Neuroleadership website by David Rock and “Search Inside Yourself” are also good resources for enhancing your leadership skills.

Having just finished an 8 week Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Program (MBSR) this summer with faculty and staff at the University of Missouri, I noticed a particular common outcome for many of the participants. “My relationship with my husband/wife/partner/co-worker is better.”

There were a number of reasons why these relationships had improved.

1. I listened to my partner without interrupting.
2. I let my partner get angry or frustrated without needing to fix it.
3. I was able to tolerate negative emotions without running away.
4. I was able to let my negative reactions come and go without acting on them.
5. I am happier.

These improvements in relationships are backed up by current research which explores the how relationships improve with increased mindfulness. Wachs and Cordova (2007) found a significant correlation between mindfulness and global marital adjustment. In essence, “more mindful partners literally see each other more clearly, regard each other more nonjudgmentally, behave more responsively toward each other, and navigate challenging waters of intimacy more gracefully.”

Mindfulness increases the ability to both communicate emotions and understand the emotions of others. Mindfulness also helps you think twice about reacting to another person’s anger or stress–being able to access a sense of ease even in the midst of difficulties that often arise in relationships, be they marital or work.

Note: I offer two-for-one specials for spouses or partners on MBSR programs which are taught at each University of Missouri campus at least once a year (3 times in Columbia) and there is an excellent online version for free by my colleague Dave Potter if you can’t get to an in-person class. The next in-person classes start in September. If you work for the University of Missouri you can get 100 incentive points in 2016 for successfully completing any of these in-person and on-line programs.

Don’t wait to improve your relationships. Join an MBSR program in your area and let mindfulness come to the rescue.

With the current Fitbit craze, you’re probably aware of the health benefits of getting in 10,000 steps a day. But are you aware of all of the health benefits of smiling?

I’d like to invite you to do a little experiment. Put a smile on your face right now and leave it there for 30 seconds. Notice how it makes you feel. According to the facial feedback hypothesis, facial muscles not only express emotions, but they also have the ability to modulate how you feel. In other words, if you put a smile on your face you can change from feeling angry or anxious to feeling happier or initiate a happy feeling “out of the blue.” When you smile, you are literally sending messages to your brain that you’re happy and eventually you agree.

Smiling doesn’t just help you feel happier, it also helps you be more effective at the workplace. People want to do business with people who smile. According to a study from Penn State University, people who smile appear to be more likable, courteous, and competent.

The Harvard School of Public Health reported that having a positive outlook on life; feeling enthusiastic, hopeful, and engaged; and bouncing back from stressful events are all known to lead to a happier life and help you avoid or manage diseases such as heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, and depression. Smiling can help you feel more positive and hopeful. A smile can help turn a stressful event into an interesting (maybe even funny) challenge.

Unfortunately for adults, we have forgotten how to smile. Adults, on average, manage only 20 smiles a day, while children smile about 400 times a day!! So we have some practicing to do. Maybe Fitbit should add a recording on their device for the number of times you smile each day.

Until then, here are some tips for times to practice smiling.

When you’re sitting at a meeting at work or listening to a presentation, smile at the person who is talking. Not only will your colleagues appreciate a friendly face, but you will feel better and more focused as a result.

When you’re working on the computer you can just randomly smile (like I am doing now).

When you are walking down the street, smile at the people passing by. They might think you are up to something, but you could also add a little brightness to them and you.

When you’re talking to someone on the phone, smile and you will sound happier to the person on the other end of the line.

When you’re feeling irritated, impatient, or angry, put a smile on your lips and see how long it takes to change your mood.

When you’re doing your sitting meditation or yoga practice you can bring a slight smile to your lips.

Try your smile practice for a week and see if you don’t feel better and notice that people are responding to you in a friendlier manner. It could be as important as getting your steps.